It's Quiet 18 - Wanna ring the bell?

[oldius]

Doyle, and McAtee, etc are unproven at any high level. Whilst I agree with your assessment of Phillips, the fact that he did stand out for Leeds and perform quite well for England at least shows he has the ability somewhere to mix it with the likes of Rice, Caceido and Casemiro in our opponents’ midfields, albeit I’d prefer our other first team regulars unless he begins to show us the form that persuaded us to buy him. None of the youngsters give me any confidence whatsoever, including Palmer, not for the level we should be aiming for every season.

I see nothing wrong with entitlement, I believe given the previous investment, set-up and experience in this team, plus Pep’s genius, means we should all be expecting at least one trophy every season. I’m certain our board would think that too. Which makes it all the more galling to see our closest rivals last season, and consistent pains in the arse Chelsea and Liverpool spending big sums on players, any of whom would have been great signings for us.

Yet we’re now very light in numbers and scratching around for transfer plan D or young kids with almost no PL or CL experience like a lower standard Luton/Southampton level club instead of the Treble winners with a bigger income than Chelsea and Arsenal and the world’s greatest manager.

A desire to win trophies is natural for any fan.
We simply have a different view about our youngsters - I am inspired at the chance of them becoming greats, while you lack confidence in them. Neither is wrong, it is just personal choice.

The players bought by Chelsea and Liverpool may prove to be excellent buys - nothing is guaranteed - but if we had bought a player like Endo, some fans here would have been going crazy, saying that he was only bought because we failed to get our targets.

There is nothing that can be done about the Paqueta situation, but it is great that we discovered it before spending the money. Doku may well come - at least French journalists seem to think it is close to done, and another signing may or may not happen; I am personally glad that Pep has already spoken about James McAtee as a competitor for the KDB role, as well as other more established players.

I like your response - it clarifies things in a less emotive way than before.

 

[Sheikh rattle and roll]

I wonder if we can do like some
other clubs as time runs out
Loan with an option to purchase

 

[richards30]

I wonder if we can do like some
other clubs as time runs out
Loan with an option to purchase

Fati?

 

[Georgian Maestro]

This is something I just do not understand: any new signing coming from another league is unproven. Anyone joining this team is unproven because we play in such a different way to any other team in world football. When you say rely, do you mean consistently using them as starters? One, or en-masse?

Even Phillips? He is a £40m signing, PL proven and an England international. It is definitely this kind of emotive post that makes me feel that there is a rising entitlement here. The man has hardly played - certainly not enough to be so utterly dismissed - but neither has Tommy Doyle, so the assumption that him gaining some minutes would lead to our collapse and complete inability to win ANYTHING is ridiculous, IMO.

There is nothing better than to see an academy player come through the ranks and establish themselves in the first team. I'm sure we would all like to see more of it. However we will not sacrifice trophy success for it.

I think it comes down to how you define giving them a chance. In my book it's giving them minutes here and there and if they step up to the plate they get more and more game time. It happened to Foden and Lewis and will now hopefully happen more with Palmer. What you don't do is go into the season with a squad depleted of genuine first team players so that you are relying on these academy players to step up. This level of expectation is not fair on the players and is more likely to hinder them imo.
We have a front 5 squad of only 6 first team players Haaland, Alvarez, Foden, Grealish, Bernardo and Kovacic. Players who we know we can rely on to play large amount of minutes in a team fighting for the league and champions league. We definitely need two more to add to that before the window shuts.

 

[Big Joe Corrigan]

Fati?

No need to be rude mate.

 

[blueparrot]

I wonder if we can do like some
other clubs as time runs out
Loan with an option to purchase

Maybe , but still think plenty of time to get Doku done and maybe 1 more too if we think we need to.

 

[Chopper2115]

Haven’t seen much of Dani olmo but watched the Bayern game last week and he was great that game.

 

[oldius]

There is nothing better than to see an academy player come through the ranks and establish themselves in the first team. I'm sure we would all like to see more of it. However we will not sacrifice trophy success for it.

I think it comes down to how you define giving them a chance. In my book it's giving them minutes here and there and if they step up to the plate they get more and more game time. It happened to Foden and Lewis and will now hopefully happen more with Palmer. What you don't do is go into the season with a squad depleted of genuine first team players so that you are relying on these academy players to step up. This level of expectation is not fair on the players and is more likely to hinder them imo.
We have a front 5 squad of only 6 first team players Haaland, Alvarez, Foden, Grealish, Bernardo and Kovacic. Players who we know we can rely on to play large amount of minutes in a team fighting for the league and champions league. We definitely need two more to add to that before the window shuts.

I think Cole has done enough but I wouldn't have a problem with buying a winger and a CM. Neither would I mind too much if we didn't.

 

[deano ou812]

There is nothing better than to see an academy player come through the ranks and establish themselves in the first team. I'm sure we would all like to see more of it. However we will not sacrifice trophy success for it.

I think it comes down to how you define giving them a chance. In my book it's giving them minutes here and there and if they step up to the plate they get more and more game time. It happened to Foden and Lewis and will now hopefully happen more with Palmer. What you don't do is go into the season with a squad depleted of genuine first team players so that you are relying on these academy players to step up. This level of expectation is not fair on the players and is more likely to hinder them imo.
We have a front 5 squad of only 6 first team players Haaland, Alvarez, Foden, Grealish, Bernardo and Kovacic. Players who we know we can rely on to play large amount of minutes in a team fighting for the league and champions league. We definitely need two more to add to that before the window shuts.

Perfectly summed up ..

 

[Kompany Car]

Anybody else feel we're going with what we've got, we'll readdress the situation in January?

If Kev looks like he's recovering ok and Palmer/McAtee make a decent impact along with Doku coming in, there probably isnt any need. I would just make sure we get our business sorted earlier for next season and our targets tied down, even if it means agreeing a deal in Jan with the move not being until summer 24.